(en) Anarkismo.net, 10 Years of Building People’s Power in Latin America by Jonathan Payn - ZACF

Date
Wed, 13 Feb 2013 15:06:15 +0200

A South African anarchist reports on the 10th annual Latin American Encounter of Popular
Autonomous Organisations (ELAOPA) ---- From 25th to 27th January 2013, ELAOPA returned to
the city of its birth to commemorate ten years of the difficult but necessary journey to
building people’s power in Latin America. It seeks to “maintain its independence in the
face of political parties, the state and its governments, NGOs, companies and all those
that, with authoritarian structures distant from our realities, come to tell us what we
have to do.” ---- “Since the first encounter we have proposed to join our hands and forces
to change the brutal and unjust reality of more than 500 years of oppression on our
continent. In this Latin America that, at the end of the 20th century, was the target of
the neoliberal policies and programme applied by the Washington Consensus – promoter of
free trade, privatisation, deregulation of the economy, tax reforms and the reduction of
public spending.

In this context the threat came under the acronym of FTAA [1], but at the same time the
struggles of resistance that imposed partial defeats through popular direct action,
brought down governments, reverted privatisations and put state coups in check were
various. Since then ELAOPA has served as a space for the accumulation of diverse
organisational experiences, strengthening the fields of action in the popular, union,
student, community, environmental, peasant etc. camps.”

The first annual Latin American Encounter of Popular Autonomous Organisations (Encontro
Latino Americano de Organizações Populares e Autônomas – ELAOPA) took place in Porto
Alegre, Brazil, in 2003. It ran alongside the first World Social Forum (WSF), also held in
Porto Alegre, marking a counter-encounter of popular organisations and social movements
characterised by class struggle and identification as original people of the South
American continent. It sought an autonomous space independent of the involvement and
interference of states, political parties and NGOs that characterised – and continue to
characterise – the WSF.
Since the first encounter in 2003, ELAOPA has taken place annually in various countries
across Latin America such as Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and Bolivia, “always
promoting and regulating its organisation under the principles of class independence,
solidarity, popular struggle and grassroots democracy and having as its perspective the
Latin American articulation and coordination of popular organisations, movements, spaces
and identities of the various countries that have participated in the encounter for the
construction of a power that is ours, a people’s power”.

From 25th to 27th January 2013, ELAOPA returned to the city of its birth to commemorate
ten years of the difficult but necessary journey to building people’s power in Latin
America. It seeks to “maintain its independence in the face of political parties, the
state and its governments, NGOs, companies and all those that, with authoritarian
structures distant from our realities, come to tell us what we have to do.” Activists
from, amongst others, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil participated; from libertarian
student movements, community-based organisations and trade unions, to recyclable waste
collectors’ and peasant and agricultural workers’ movements.

As with previous ELAOPAs, it was structured into thematic commissions (union, student and
education, community, communication, peasant/agriculture, human rights, muralismo [3],
gender/ethnicity and accessibility), various workshops and talks (photography, austerity
and popular struggles in Europe, popular education, community radio, etc.) and a plenary
with a transversal theme common to all participants; in this case the IIRSA Plan and
building people’s power in Latin America.

In line with its political principles the encounter was completely self-managed, with the
participants of the various thematic commissions also being responsible for the practical
and logistical aspects of the encounter, such as preparing food for participants and
cleaning the venue.

The 10th ELAOPA was dedicated to the memory of the life and struggle of Alberto “Pocho”
Mechoso, a founding member of the Uruguayan Anarchist Federation (FAU), unionist in the
Meat Workers Federation and an active militant of the Organización Popular Revolucionario
Orientales-33 (OPR-33) – the armed wing of the FAU. Arrested in Buenos Aires on September
26, 1976 as part of the Condor Plan, his body was found on May 23, 2012 with seven others
on the seabed, in barrels filled with cement..

Transversal Theme: IIRSA and People’s Power

In considering the current social, political and economic conjuncture in Latin America
ELAOPA notes that, while important differences between the neoliberal governments of the
past and the current so-called progressive governments exist, there are also structural
similarities which present limits to and impede the true emancipation of the people.
One such example that demonstrates the continuity between the policies of previous
neoliberal governments and the so-called progressive ones is former Brazilian President
Lula da Silva’s about-face with regards to the development of a hydroelectric dam complex
in the Xingu river basin, in the heart of the Amazon. First conceived in the 1970s under
the military dictatorship, Lula was severely critical of the project. The initiative was
rejected by the Encounter of Indigenous People in 1989 and attracted international
criticism for the threats it posed both in social and environmental terms. However, he
changed his stance to that of defending the project as essential for progress shortly
after he took office as president. Around the same time he and his Workers’ Party (PT)
were involved in convening the first WSF.

The economies of the so-called progressive governments of Latin America are based on an
extractive capitalist model, primarily in the agro-mineral sector, driven by a local
ruling elite. This elite is committed to giving concessions to the dominant energy and
mining multinationals while at the same time trying to forge an alliance between the
rulers and the ruled by means of a politics of class conciliation (for example, dialoguing
through the WSF). It is this extractive capitalist model which stimulates economic growth
and the financing of a certain increase in social spending. This somewhat reduces the
daily misery of the people, thus allowing for the re-election of these “progressive”
governments. At the same time, however, it reinforces the legacy of, and subjugation to,
imperialism through an elite pact between local elites – the IIRSA Plan – designed to
further open the continent to transnational plunder.

IIRSA is an agreement signed by the presidents of 12 South American countries in 2000 to
facilitate the integration of the physical infrastructure of the region, prioritising the
strategic areas of transport, energy and telecommunications.

“Under the pretext of independent and sustainable development, socio-cultural integration
and modernisation IIRSA is consolidating a model of political and economic domination,
enabling – in the framework of the so-called progressive governments – strategic projects
and actions for the opening of the territories of the different countries to the
exploitation and profit of various transnationals. The guarantee of the free circulation
of commodities and capital on the continent, territorial reorganisation on the basis of
criteria of control and of commercialisation, and a so-called modernisation and
actualisation of regulatory frameworks in the environmental and infrastructure areas are
integral elements of the IIRSA Plan that have shown themselves to be one more initiative
for the plunder, exploitation and domination of the Latin American territories and people.”
It is this continuity of neoliberal economic policies and the complicity of “progressive”
governments in facilitating the “plunder, exploitation and domination of the Latin
American territories and people” – from former President Lula in Brazil to Evo Morales in
Bolivia today – that highlights the need for people’s struggle outside of and against the
state.Also it shows the need for spaces such as ELAOPA that are independent of state and
party interference and co-option. The brutal state repression of indigenous peoples’
struggles in Bolivia against the construction of IIRSA-related infrastructure in Bolivia,
such as the construction of a highway through protected indigenous territories and
Morales’ unilateral declaration in 2010 that, “Whether you want it or not, we are going to
build this road” give further testament to the affirmation at ELAOPA that;
“[...] for the emancipation of the oppressed Latin Americans, the path continues to be
that of popular struggle. Co-option and clientelism are effective attempts that the system
uses to fragment us, but they are not capable of suffocating the resistance. We continue
firm in our tasks, organising ourselves, struggling and resisting at the local level,
denouncing the projects of IIRSA and constituting a political and ideological
counter-position to the system’s mechanisms of control throughout these five centuries of
domination on our continent. We advance spreading solidarity, building people’s power with
class independence and promoting direct action against injustice. For the integration of
those that struggle!”
The experience of ELAOPA and the process of building people’s power in Latin America
should serve as an example for the dominated, exploited and oppressed the world over. The
way forward lies in building peoples’ organisations, movements and struggles on the basis
of class independence, solidarity, popular struggle and grassroots democracy. These must
be independent of political parties of all types, the state and government, NGOs,
companies and “all those that, with authoritarian structures distant from our realities,
come to tell us what we have to do.” It is only through these organisations of
counter-power that the path to true emancipation through the construction of people’s
power can be found.
“Build People’s Power for the integration of those that struggle!”
Class Independence, Solidarity, Popular Struggle